Hubert Foster and Naomi Turner
Hubert Foster worked in the Weston State Hospital kitchen for twenty-eight years and three months. When he started working there, there were over 2300 patients, but Hubert's kitchen only fed about 1800 of them. Hubert worked two meals a day, breakfast and lunch.
Click here to listen to Hubert.
The kitchen used a lot of food that was grown on the grounds or from around the area. For many years, dairy cows were kept at the hospital, and all of the milk was used in the hospital. Hubert was working there one evening and saw workers bring in "75 big Holstein cows." Fruits and vegetables such as cabbage and beans, came form the prison in Huttonsville. They also came from the garden and greenhouse behind the hospital. One guard had a "monstrous garden." Other food items were commodity supplies, such as the flour, cornmeal, butter, and cheese.
"It was just like its own little town. It was self containing," Naomi remembered. The hospital had many ways of being self sufficient, such as its own water plant, coal mine, and laundry. Even a lot of animals the meat came from were raised at hospital.
Click here to listen to Naomi.
There were a lot of mouths to feed and the number of supplies taken to feed the patients proves it. Hubert recalled it took 1100 pounds of turkey for the Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. Breakfast demanded 300 pounds of bacon and seven cases (thirty dozen a case) of eggs. When they made hotcakes, they used 40-50 pounds of flour.
There were so many patients they all couldn't fit in the dinning room at one time. There was a dinning room for the men and another for the women. Wards would be brought in to eat, and then when they were done the tables would be cleared and the next wards were brought in. Patients who couldn't make it to the dinning room at a smaller dinning room and the ward.
"That food over there was good," Hubert recollected. "They would have ham, roast beef, roast pork, pork chops, chicken, fish, hamburgers . . ." There would be meat three times a day, "maybe bacon for breakfast, chicken for dinner, and roast beef for supper." One time someone complained about the food. Bob Conley, from the house of Delegates happened to be in town and he made a surprise visit to the hospital. He checked out the food and said it was excellent over the radio.
"I always said I wouldn't serve the patients anything I wouldn't eat." Hubert never did, except for when they started making pizza in the 80s. "They said it was good, but I didn't like pizza!"
There were birthday parties on the wards each month with a big birthday cake. "They were big beautiful cakes." Hubert said. Any other time when there was a social gathering in the ward, patients could go to the dining room and get a tray of cookies and coffee. There were also pies and cobblers.
Naomi Turner was a health service worker at the hospital who worked on the wards, usually in the medicare or infirmary ward. "It was just like a big nursing home," she said, "I just took care of the patients like you would in a nursing home or hospital."
Naomi and Hubert both remember there was plenty to do at the hospital for patients. Some patients could work on the farm, and help the workers with the food supply. Others helped our in the coal mines or in rehabilitation. Teachers taught them how to sew, make leather goods, and weave rugs on a loom, and patients could sell these items to the aides or family members. There was even a ceramic teacher who had her own kiln and taught patients how to do ceramics. "It was the best therapy they could have, they enjoyed it," Hubert said.
In addition to there being jobs and crafts for the patients, they was other entertainment as well. Every year on the fourth of July Buddy Starcher, a radio man, would come to the hospital and there would be a party on the lawn with watermelon. The patients looked forward to this event, saying, "Buddy Starcher is coming to see me."
Click here to listen to Naomi.
Many patients at the hospital were quite talented, Hubert and Naomi recall. Some were great singers, or played the organ in the chapel. Others painted murals on the walls of the ward. Naomi remembers when she left, there were still murals there. "They should have been saved and put in the museum."
For women at that time in the area, working at the hospital was about the only option. It was either a glass factory or the hospital, and many women were employed at the hospital.
"Those patients didn't want to leave the hospital," Naomi remembered. "They really didn't." Hubert recalled, "They would just cry and carry on. They said, "This is my family, this is my home." Many of them had been there thirty or thirty-five years, some since they were kids who had grown up there. Many wanted to be buried with "their friends on the hill" when they died. For them, it was the only life they knew.
The people Naomi and Hubert worked with were "like family." Naomi remembered one time when her mother was sick an aide offered Naomi her vacation time so Naomi could stay home and take care of her sick mother. In the end, Naomi couldn't use it because it was too much book work. But when Naomi was at work having a bad day, the aide would let her sit down and rest, and tell her "We'll take care of things."
To Hubert and Naomi, the beauty of the old building is astounding. They remember the circular marble staircase, the big carvings on the wooden doors, and the marble bathrooms. "You ought to be inside," Hubert said, "with the double doors shut and the stained glass reflecting on the marble."